1. Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire recently listed the 11 best slot defenders in the NFL. These can be safeties, corners – any position as long as they cover the slot.
2. Chris Harris Jr. Has shown year in and year out his skills as a top rated cornerback. No surprise, the cornerback has reached the top at Pro Footbal Focus.

• Best Slot Cornerbacks Of All Time Leaders
• Best Slot Cornerbacks Of All Time 2020
• Best Slot Cornerbacks Of All Time Wins

The Chicago Bears secondary received a lot of praise for its growth in 2018, with Kyle Fuller, Adrian Amos and Eddie Jackson grabbing most of the headlines.

Ranking of the NFL’s top ten greatest cornerbacks of all time. This list includes the player’s accomplishments, honors, awards, records, & statistics.

Over the last three seasons, though, Bryce Callahan has flown under the radar as a consistent performer in the slot when he’s been healthy.

Best Slot Cornerbacks Of All Time Leaders

Avoiding injuries has been the difficult part for him, but when he’s on the field, he’s one of the league’s best.

Pro Football Focus listed him as one of the Top 8 slot cornerbacks in the NFL for 2018, pointing out his on-field reliability in spite of the injuries.

While Callahan missed some time in 2017 with an injury, he performed well when healthy, generating the third-most slot coverage snaps per reception allowed. While he hasn’t offered much in terms of run defense or as a blitzer (only four career pressures), he’s allowed less than an 80.0 passer rating from the slot in each of his three pro seasons, showing a consistency that is a very valuable piece on an up-and-coming Chicago defense.

According to PFF, Callahan allowed a 76.3 passer rating when targeted in the slot last season, the sixth-best mark in the NFL. His 82.9 overall grade ranked 31st among all cornerbacks.

Callahan’s playing on only a one-year deal after signing his restricted free agent tender this past offseason.

The big key for him will be trying to play all 16 games for the first time in his career. If he stays healthy and continues his level of production, he could be in line for a nice pay day next offseason.

As the decade comes to a close, we’re creating some Top 10 lists for 2010 to 2019. Up next, our Top 10 cornerbacks.

1. Richard Sherman: Sherman became the 25th cornerback off the board when the Seahawks made him a fifth-round pick in 2011 and it’s clear that everyone missed something in their evaluation of him coming out of Stanford. Sherman leads all players in interceptions over the course of he decade, he’s been named a first-team All-Pro three times and he’s turned in another excellent season with the 49ers in 2019.

2. Patrick Peterson: If any of the 24 cornerbacks drafted before Sherman in 2011 has made a case for being the right choice, it is Peterson. He’s a two-time first-team All-Pro as a cornerback — he was named once as a returner as well — and has notched 25 interceptions since entering the league. Peterson returned from this year’s six-game suspension to show that he’s still capable of playing at a high level.

3. Darrelle Revis: It didn’t end all that well for Revis, but he was the top cornerback in the league through the first half of the decade. He was a first-team All-Pro with the Jets in 2010 and 2011 and then made it again with the Patriots while helping them to a Super Bowl in 2014. His return to the Jets the next season would mark the beginning of the end of his time as a dominant corner, but almost everything to that point was sparkling.

4. Chris Harris: As passing offenses have evolved in the NFL, the need for top-flight slot cornerbacks has skyrocketed. Harris has been more than just a slot corner during his time with the Broncos, but he’s excelled at that aspect of the game and helped the Broncos advance to a pair of Super Bowls in the process. Not too shabby for a player who went undrafted out of Kansas in 2011.

5. Stephon Gilmore: Gilmore was a solid cornerback with the Bills over his first five seasons, but he’s taken things up a few notches since arriving in New England in 2017. He made his first All-Pro team in 2018 and will almost certainly make it two in a row after leading a stifling Patriots defense this season. That has his name in the mix for defensive player of the year and he’d be the first defensive back to take those honors since Troy Polamalu in 2010.

6. Aqib Talib: No player on this list has switched teams more than Talib, who has played for the Buccaneers, Patriots, Broncos and Rams over the last 10 years. No player has returned more interceptions for touchdowns, either. Talib has scored 10 times on his 26 interceptions this decade and he teamed with Harris to spearhead the secondary of the Super Bowl 50 champions.

7. Joe Haden: The Browns made Haden the seventh overall choice of the 2010 draft and he was one of the team’s few first-round picks that they haven’t regretted making over the years. Haden had 19 interceptions and one All-Pro first-team during his seven seasons with the Browns. He’s posted seven more picks over his three seasons with the Steelers, which leaves him tied for third over the course of the decade, and has remained a consistent performer through his 10th NFL season.

8. Johnathan Joseph: There are flashier players on this list than Joseph, but steadiness is sometimes overlooked when it comes to cornerbacks. Joseph moved from Cincinnati to Houston in 2011 and has never missed more than three games in a season for the Texans. In a league where plenty of talented players never make their mark because they can’t stay out of the trainer’s room, Joseph has shown the value of showing up and playing well.

Best Slot Cornerbacks Of All Time 2020

9. Marcus Peters: Speaking of flashier players, Peters has been capable of going boom or bust at any moment for most of his time with the Chiefs, Rams and Ravens. The bad can result in big plays for the other side, but the good has resulted in 27 interceptions. That’s good for fourth in the decade, which is impressive given the fact that Peters only entered the league in 2015. He’s returned six of those picks for touchdowns and has also scored on a fumble recovery.

10. Jalen Ramsey: Ramsey has a smaller sample size than anyone else on this list, but he came into the league playing at a high level in 2016 and his game hasn’t slipped since that point. He was an All-Pro in 2017 and the Rams gave up two first-round picks to acquire him from the Jaguars this season, which is a pretty good gauge of how well respected he’s become in four seasons.

Best Slot Cornerbacks Of All Time Wins

Related slideshow: The 2019 NFL season games (Provided by imagn)